What are ethics and
sustainability
The definition of sustainable is
“causing little or no damage to
the environment and therefore
able to continue for a long
time” (Merriam-Webster, 2015),
unfortunately we won’t be able
to continue for a long time at
our society’s high consumption
levels as it’s predicted if we
carry on as we are by 2050 our
existing natural resources
will be exhausted and a third
of the natural world has been
destroyed by humans over the
past three decades (Burke and
Townsend, 2002). That’s a scary
prospect seeing as it’s in our
lifetimes, that’s why it’s so
important for every industry
to change its ways, especially
the fashion industry which it
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creates 126 million cubic yards
of landfill space a year (anna,b,
2016) . This is also not a problem
that has suddenly appeared
we have known what we’re
doing to the earth for years,
because even twenty years ago
at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio,
countries adopted “Agenda 21”
to rethink economic growth,
develop social equity and
ensure environmental protection, sadly this did not work
obviously who knows if we had
taken action then would the
mass market be different now?
(adams, 1998)
The definition of ethical means
what is happening is morally
right, it even goes beyond
doing no harm, it represents
an approach which strives to
take an active role in poverty
reduction, making sustainable livelihood, minimising and
counteracting environmental
concerns. Which we’re clearly
not doing because six million
people in the UK alone are living
hand to mouth because they are
being paid less than the living
wage (BBC, 2015).
In fashion, the word ethical
more specifically represents
an approach to the design,
sourcing and manufacturing of
clothing which maximises benefits to people and communities
while minimising impact on the
environment in which we live.